Good morning, shareholders, fellow directors, team members, and guests. My name is Steven Fisher, and I'm the Non-executive Chair of The Reject Shop Limited. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of The Reject Shop Limited. Thank you all for attending today's meeting. It's just past 9:30 A.M., and a quorum is present. I now declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being held virtually via our online meeting platform. Instructions on how to participate in the meeting are included in the notice of meeting and in the virtual meeting guide, which are available on our website. You may also participate in the meeting via telephone. The dialing details to do so are now displayed on the screen. Irrespective of your method of attending this meeting, I assure you that you will all have the same opportunity to participate today as you would at a physical meeting. This includes being able to ask questions via the online meeting platform and the telephone. You'll also be able to vote using an electronic voting card. We will discuss these processes a little later. If we experience any technical issues today that impact the meeting, I will assess the circumstances and advise you accordingly. If this isn't possible, you will be informed on how and when to rejoin the meeting via the ASX platform. I would like to introduce your board of directors, who are all online with us today. David Grant, Chair of Audit and Risk Committee, Nick Perkins, and Margaret Zabel, Chair of the People and Culture Committee. We'd also like to introduce some of the members of the executive leadership team, who are also online with us. Clinton Cahn, our Chief Executive Officer, Amy Eshuys, Chief Operating Officer, and Andrew Wolf, the Chief Financial Officer. We also have Lauren Harris, the Company Secretary, with us. Today, our items of formal business comprise the receipt and consideration of the financial report of the company and the reports of the directors and auditor for the year ended 31 July 2024, the adoption of the remuneration report, and the re-election of Margaret Zabel as a non-executive director of the company. Before we turn to the formal business of the meeting, I will address you, followed by Clinton Cahn, our CEO. The Reject Shop is a merchandise-led business, and at the beginning of FY twenty-four financial year, we committed to materially improving our merchandise offer. The new merchandise strategy is primarily focused on offering customers consistently low prices on branded household essentials, as well as more newness and greater variety at compelling price points across our general merchandise and seasonal product offerings. The FY 2024 financial year was the first full year during which the new merchandise strategy was meaningfully in place, and I'm pleased that our new product offering is resonating well with our customers. During FY 2024, and in a challenging macroeconomic retail and trading environment, company delivered record sales of AUD 852.7 million, up 4.1% on the prior corresponding period. Last year, like many Australian retailers, The Reject Shop encountered margin pressure from rising costs and higher shrinkage, which adversely impacted profitability. In FY 2024, The Reject Shop recorded earnings before interest and tax of AUD 13.8 million and net profit after tax of AUD 4.7 million. In order to address these challenges, management has been focused on gross profit margin improvements. Pleasingly, gross profit margin improved in the second half of FY 2024 and has continued to improve into FY 2025. Company's balance sheet remains strong, with AUD 49.9 million in cash and no drawn debt at 30 June 2024. During FY 2024, approximately AUD 15 million in cash was paid to shareholders via dividends and the on-market share buyback. Our fellow board members and I believe that the discount variety sector presents a significant opportunity for growth over the medium to long term. As Australia's largest discount variety retailer and with our strong balance sheet, The Reject Shop is well positioned to continue capturing this opportunity. The company currently has 386 stores across Australia, having opened 67 new stores and closed 35, mostly underperforming stores since June 2020. In FY 2025, the company is targeting to open approximately 15-20 new stores. Christmas is an important time of the year for many within our community, and The Reject Shop is ready to again play its part in helping all Australians to save and celebrate. Our initial Christmas stock has arrived and is set up in all stores, with customers responding positively to the range, both at the register and on social media. I would like to thank all of our team members across the country for their efforts, and express my gratitude to my board colleagues, our shareholders, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders for your support and encouragement throughout the year. It is very much appreciated. I'll now invite The Reject Shop CEO, Clinton Cahn, to address the shareholders. Thank you, Steve, and good morning, fellow shareholders. It's a privilege to present to you today on behalf of our four thousand plus team members across our three hundred and eighty-six, and growing, store network, three distribution centers, and store support center. Further to what Steve said, during FY twenty-four, significant changes were made to our merchandise strategy, including launching our new homewares range, which offers our customers a rotation of new and exciting high-quality products at amazing value. We grew our seasonal events, including Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, by offering customers more variety at compelling price points. We've refreshed most of our core ranges and improved the way product is presented to customers in our stores, and improved the breadth and availability of our branded low-price household essentials range to help our customers save money every day. Our customers are responding positively to our new and improved merchandise offering. I'm pleased to again share that during FY twenty-four, the company generated around two million more customer transactions than it did in the prior year, reported record full-year sales, and recorded positive comp sales growth in a challenging economic and trading environment. We also distributed approximately 80% of net profit after tax to shareholders in the form of a AUD 0.10 per share dividend. All of this would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of each and every one of our committed team members. I'd like to thank all of our team members for their contribution and efforts during FY twenty-four. We are pleased with the progress being made in relation to the new merchandise strategy, and we recognize that there is an opportunity to improve the profitability of the business. My team's key focus in FY 2025 is to continue to improve gross profit margin, while also growing sales through the ongoing improvement of the merchandise offering and expanding our national store network. During FY 2024, we opened 17 new stores, and we continue to look for new locations where we can conveniently serve more Australians. In FY 2025, we're targeting to open approximately 15-20 new stores. In addition, we continue to explore and invest in strategic projects across the business, particularly in supply chain and technology, to minimize risk and enable efficiencies and growth. My team is currently focused on implementing a new warehouse management system and modernizing our network infrastructure. As shareholders who have recently visited our stores will know, we have continued to excite our customers in FY twenty-five with low prices on branded household essentials, as well as more newness and variety at incredible value across our general merchandise and seasonal offering. During the first quarter of FY twenty-five, our team has continued to surprise and delight our customers with our spring event, which included three unique rotations of our homewares range in the promotional space within our stores. In addition, we introduced new core ranges across confectionery, pet, and home organization, with further range enhancements planned for the second half. We are again excited to introduce customers to our latest Halloween and Christmas ranges, which launched in store during September. We are confident that customers will love this year's Christmas range. Approximately 65% of the range is made up of new products, and approximately 80% of the range retails for under AUD 10. During the first 15 weeks of FY 25, total sales growth, comparable store sales growth, and gross profit margin are all up on the prior corresponding period. Pleasingly, the growth in both sales and gross profit margin is being driven by both consumables and general merchandise. We expect total sales growth in FY 25 to also be supported by new store openings. The company is targeting to open 15 to 20 new stores this financial year and to close approximately 5 stores. During this half, the company has so far opened 2 new stores and closed one store. This results in the store network currently consisting of 386 stores, up from 380 stores at last year's AGM. We expect to open a further seven stores during this half, including our new store in Sunshine, Victoria, which is scheduled to open tomorrow. As you know, the second quarter is a key trading period for our business, and I look forward to providing a more comprehensive update on our performance at the half-year results in February 2025. The macroeconomic and consumer environment is uncertain, and we're pleased that our strong balance sheet positions us well to navigate through any potential volatility in trading. We are also very aware that The Reject Shop plays a critical role in supporting Australians who are currently faced with significant cost of living pressures. We do this by helping our customers save money on branded, everyday, essential items, such as cleaning products, toiletries, personal hygiene products, kids' lunchbox snacks, and pet products. In addition, our team continues to work hard to offer our customers exciting new general merchandise and seasonal ranges at incredible value. We are focused on offering products that bring joy to our customers during challenging economic times, while also making it more affordable for Australians to celebrate seasonal events, including Halloween and Christmas, with their friends and families. The Reject Shop is Australia's largest discount variety retailer, and we have a track record of helping customers save money for over forty years. We remain committed to ensuring that every visit to The Reject Shop brings joy and savings to our customers. To our shareholders, thank you for your ongoing support and long-term commitment to our business. I want to again acknowledge the privilege that I have to lead your company. I'm determined, together with my team, to continuously improve The Reject Shop's performance and deliver sustainable long-term value for all shareholders. I'll now hand you back to the Chair for the next part of today's meeting. Thank you, Clinton, for your comments. Before we turn to the formal business of the meeting, I will ask our Company Secretary, Lauren, to go over the procedures and processes for today's meeting. Thank you, Steven. My comments address two important points for today's meeting: voting and asking questions. Jim Contogeorgis from Link Market Services, our share registry, will act as Returning Officer for the purposes of conducting and determining the results of the poll. Shareholders and proxy holders may cast their votes using the electronic voting card received after validating their online registration. If you have not already done so, to validate your registration, you will be asked to enter your security holder reference number, commonly referred to as an SRN, or holder identification number, commonly referred to as a HIN, plus your postcode if you are in Australia or your country if you are outside of Australia. To then cast your vote, click on the Get Voting Card button. The poll will remain open for five minutes following the conclusion of the meeting to allow any final votes to be submitted, with the results of the meeting to be announced to the ASX as soon as possible following the meeting. If you have any trouble using the online meeting platform, please check the virtual meeting guide, which is on our website, or contact the helpline shown on the screen. Shareholders and proxy holders may ask questions or make comments during the meeting. The chair proposes to take general questions and comments when we consider the first item of formal business, the annual report. After the resolution for each item of business has been put to shareholders, the chair will take any questions or comments that relate to that particular item of business. Before closing the meeting, the Chair will then offer another opportunity for any further questions to be asked. If you are a shareholder and proxy holder and wish to ask a question via the online meeting platform, please click on the Ask a Question button on your screen and follow the instructions. Alternatively, if you wish to ask a question via the dedicated phone line, please press star one. I will act as the moderator for questions and put them initially to the Chair, who may answer them or redirect them to another director, a company representative, or the auditor. I encourage you to submit your votes and any questions you may have earlier in the meeting via the online meeting platform to ensure they are received and your questions can be addressed at the relevant part of the meeting. I will now pass you back to the chair for the next part of today's meeting. Thank you, Lauren. The notice of meeting outlines the items of business before the meeting today and has been made available to all shareholders. I will take the notice of meeting as read. All resolutions at today's meeting are ordinary resolutions. Ordinary resolutions are passed if more than 50% of the votes cast by or on behalf of shareholders entitled to vote on the resolution are in favor. Proxy votes received on each resolution before the meeting will be displayed on the screen when each item is being considered. As set out in the notice of meeting, as chair of the meeting, I intend to vote undirected proxies in favor of each resolution, and I now formally vote undirected proxies in this manner and all directed proxies in accordance with the direction instructed by shareholders. Now turn to the first item of business, which is to receive and consider the financial report of the company and the reports of the directors and auditors for the year ended thirty June twenty twenty-four, which were included in the twenty twenty-four annual report and is available on our website. It is not a requirement to vote on this item of business. Company's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is represented by Brad Peake, who is present at today's meeting and is available to answer any questions in relation to the conduct of the audit, preparation and content of the auditor's report, accounting policies adopted by the company, and independence of the auditor. Are there any questions on item one? Thank you, Chair. We have some questions in the online meeting platform. The first question is from our shareholder, Stephen Mayne. I will read the question: The ASX is currently in the midst of an unprecedented deluge of takeovers that have contributed to listed entities falling by 170 or 7.4% to 2,124 since June 2022. There have already been 27 major takeovers above AUD 200 million completed so far this year. Why are public markets not valuing ASX companies like ours more highly? Does the Chair agree this spinning out of the ASX is a problem for the nation, and what are we doing to avoid being gobbled up? Thank you, Steven. Yeah, so you pose an interesting conundrum for smaller companies, and I think that ACCC and government has a part to play to make sure that the monopolistic approach in this country is kept at bay. But I think we're just a much smaller country and therefore we have these consequences. Thank you, Chair. We have another question online from Stephen Mayne. Did any of the main five proxy advisors, Axie, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS, and ASA, recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions, including the remuneration report item? If so, what reasons did they give, and will you disclose the proxy votes before the debate on each resolution so shareholders can ask questions about the reasons if there have been any protest votes? Also, will you disclose the proxies to ASX with the formal address next year, as many companies now do? So in relation to the coverage, we are covered by ISS and Glass Lewis. Both of them recommended for, in relation to both resolutions. In terms of disclosure, I'll take that away for consideration. It's not an issue either way, we can do that, and I'll take it under consideration. Thank you, Chair. We have another question from Stephen Mayne. Why is there no LTI grant approval for the CEO this year? This is pretty standard each year for ASX 300 companies. Maybe I'll pass that over to Margaret to share a frame, but I'm sure that we did have something in relation to the LTI this year, so. Thanks. Thank you, Steven. Maybe I'll take that as company secretary. So Clinton Cahn, our CEO, is not a director, and we don't have an obligation under the listing rules to seek approval for his LTI grant. Hopefully that answers the question, Stephen. Thank you, Chair. We have one further question from Stephen Mayne. In terms of the Australian operation, how many enterprise agreements with unions does The Reject Shop have across the business? And are we worried about these ongoing proposed changes to federal industrial relations law by the federal government? JB Hi-Fi and Domino's both said at recent AGMs that they pay award wages, have no enterprise agreements, and virtually non-existent union membership amongst its workforce. Is our situation the same? I think I'll pass that over to Clinton to answer. Hi, Steven. Our main EBA is a three-year EBA, which started last July, with the SDA in relation to our store team. It excludes store managers and assistant store managers. That EBA, the rate of pay sits slightly above the award. We also have two EBAs that relate to our two DCs that we operate, one in Perth and one in Queensland. There are no further questions online. Operator, are there any phone questions? Thank you. There are no questions on the phone line. Okay, so we'll move to the second item of business, which is to adopt the twenty twenty-four remuneration report. The words of the resolution are now displayed on the screen. The remuneration report was released to the ASX on the twenty-second of August, twenty twenty-four, as part of the twenty twenty-four annual report, which is available on our website. Vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the company directors of the company. The board recommends you vote in favor of this resolution. The summary of proxy votes received before the meeting are now displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this item of business? Thank you, Chair. There are no questions on the online meeting platform. Operator, are there any questions on the phone line? Thank you. There are no questions on the phone line. Thank you. I will now move to item three, which seeks your approval for the re-election of Margaret Zabel as non-executive director of the company. The words of the resolution are now displayed on the screen. Margaret Zabel is eligible for re-election as director and offers herself for re-election in accordance with Article nine point three of the company's constitution. Margaret is a specialist in customer-centered business transformation, brand strategy, innovation, digital communications, customer experience, and change leadership. Margaret has more than 20 years of senior executive experience working across major companies and brands in fast-moving consumable goods, food, technology, and communications industries, including multinationals, ASX 100 companies, and not-for-profits. Margaret's executive experience includes being national marketing director for Lion, vice president of marketing for McDonald's Australia, and chief executive officer of the Advertising Council of Australia. Margaret is currently a non-executive director of G8 Education Limited, Select Harvests Limited, and Australian Vintage Limited. Margaret joined the board of The Reject Shop in June 2021 and is chair of the People and Culture Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. The board, other than Margaret Zabel, recommends that you vote in favor of this resolution. Summary of proxy votes received before the meeting are now displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this item of business? Thank you, Chair. There are no questions in relation to this item of business on our online platform. Operator, are there any phone questions? Thank you. There are no questions on the phone line. Thank you. Are there any further questions online or on the telephone? Thank you, Chair. We do have one further question from our shareholder, Richard Wilson. The question is: Do you have any update on any share buybacks? I don't have an update. I think the move, Clinton, did we close on the- The buyback, the previous buyback concluded in mid-September, and there's no buyback currently on foot, and the board and management will revisit capital management along with the half-year results in February. Yeah. So it's towards the middle of September. Thank you. There are no further questions on the online meeting platform. Operator, are there any phone questions? Thank you. We do have a question from David Jaliba. Please go ahead, David. Hi, good morning. So with the merchandising offering, The Reject Shop tried that, sort of in the 2016-2019 period, and it failed with customers, the home merchandising side of things. With the stock turns in FY 2024, it's at 3.6, which is the lowest in listed history. You also have to carry extended inventory. I'm just wondering how it's possible to keep saying that it's resonating with customers in light of those numbers. Thank you. I'll hand the pen over to Clinton to answer. Hi, David. Thanks for your question. I think just a couple of points. I think firstly, the current merchandise strategy is in some ways similar, but in many ways differentiated to the strategy in place between 2016 and 2019. For example, when we talk about our homewares, what we've been doing is introducing a large amount of variety and newness that changes every few weeks. So we're talking about tableware, kitchen tableware, home decorator items, home storage items, garden decoration items. They come in, they sit in the promotional space for three to four weeks. We aim to sell as much of that as possible within that period. The price points sit at under five—many items under AUD 5 and almost all items under AUD 10. That leaves the business pretty quickly, and that is resonating very well with our customer. I think what's most pleasing about that is, we're in a challenging macroeconomic environment where customers don't necessarily need a honey pot in the shape of a beehive or a salt and pepper shaker that looks like lemons. Yet they pick that item up because it brings them a little bit of joy, and it's unique and differentiated and fun, and at a very good price point, at a very decent quality. The progress we're making around that product is really encouraging. Your question around stock turn, you're right. Stock turn is lower than we'd like it to be and is lower it has been historically. The main reason for that is actually not our general merchandise business, but our consumables business. So the consumables business has grown materially over the last few years, and I'm talking about toiletries, cleaning products, confectionery, pet food. The average unit cost on a consumable product has gone up 20-30% over the last few years, and so the cost of that inventory has gone up, and likewise, the price of the product's gone up. The demand for the product is really strong, and so we have to make sure we've got very strong availability in our stores. And to make sure we can fill the shelves as efficiently as possible, we've got to hold a bit of that stock at the DC. So this is not... This dynamic isn't gonna endure forever. It's part of the current macro environment, so it just means we've got to carry a bit more stock to make sure we're constantly filling up that consumable product, given the strong demand for it, but on the general merchandise side, whether it's Christmas, Halloween, those homewares, we're actually seeing some pretty good stock turns in that product, but thank you for your question. I do have a second follow-up, not in regards to that, but just another point. So in regards to the store growth sort of narrative, when The Reject Shop first listed in two thousand and six, it made sense for store expansion because it wasn't present in all states and territories in Australia yet, and then in FY thirteen, fourteen, there was another push for more stores with the cap and equity raising, and then you could say post, I guess, FY twenty equity raising into today, there's just been more store growth. But if you run the numbers against the Australian population, in FY 2011, so before the 2013, 2014, equity raise and push for more stores, you saw the ratio of Australians to Reject Shop stores drop below 110,000 people per store. And you start to see this structural decline in just the efficiency of the business overall. It seems like you have too many stores in relation to the Australian population. And at the moment, it's like rock bottom in terms of like the, it's like 71,000 people per store. It just seems like you have too many stores, which doesn't make sense. Thanks, thanks for your question, David. I'll do my best to answer that question. I think firstly, the way we think of it. Firstly, I think we look at the profitability of every store, every month and certainly every year, and we make a decision around whether that store should remain open or closed. And we've closed a number of stores over the last couple of years where they are unprofitable. We believe there's a significant opportunity to grow our store network. And that's a forward-looking, that's a forward-looking statement. It's not linked to the history. You're right, we've currently got a store for seventy thousand Australians. If you look to some of the U.S. discount variety retailers, and I don't think we should compare ourselves to them, they've got one per ten thousand or fifteen thousand Americans, but I don't think that's a good comparison. The Canadians, which is a much more similar population to us, the spread of the population across the country, across Canada is similar to the spread of the population around, across Australia, and there's better comparables around the customer, the competitive environment, Canada versus Australia. Dollarama in Canada has one store per, I think, twenty-five thousand Canadians. So I'm not saying we're gonna get to one per twenty-five thousand Australians, but if we could get to one per sixty thousand or one per fifty-five thousand or one per fifty thousand Australians, just looking at those peers overseas, that feels like an opportunity. It's also a highly fragmented market, discount variety in Australia. There's state-based competitors, there's lots of independents. So we think there is plenty of opportunity to expand. We're aware of the gaps in our network. There are many Australians that we do not conveniently serve because we're not in their country town or in their suburb. So we feel very comfortable with our store expansion strategy, and we actually think one per 70,000 is not enough. The other thing we look at is the saturation of supermarkets. We like sitting next to supermarkets. I think there's 2,000 Coles and Woolies in the country, and we've got 386 stores. And that's ignoring, you know, Aldi and IGAs, so there's plenty of opportunity for us to expand. And we do that responsibly. We make sure every new store is as profitable as it can be, and we look at our existing network all the time to make sure our stores are profitable. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, David. Any more questions? There's no more questions on the online meeting platform. Operator, are there any more phone questions? Thank you. There are no further questions on the phone line. Thank you. Now that we have considered all the items of business, that brings us to the end of The Reject Shop's 2024 annual meeting. I now declare the meeting closed, subject to completion of the poll. The poll will remain open for five minutes to allow any final votes to be submitted. If you have not yet submitted your votes via the online meeting platform, you should do so now. The final results of the meeting will be released to the ASX and placed on our website as soon as possible following the meeting. I would like to thank shareholders for the support throughout the year, and again, express my appreciation to my fellow directors, management, and team members of The Reject Shop for their contributions during the year. Thank you to all our shareholders for attending The Reject Shop's Annual General Meeting today. The meeting is now closed. Thank you very much.